Hi there, New (old) kid on the block signing in from the Netherlands. I have been collecting tape-, cassette- and microcassette recorders ever since the advent of online auction sites and over the years, have managed to build up a nice little collection, but somehow, the one piece I wanted most always eluded me: the Fi-Cord 101 spy recorder, that little baby-blue Swiss beauty from the early sixties. Every now and then, one would pop up on eBay, but every time someone else would beat me to. I'd actually given up, when a few months ago on Marktplaats, a Dutch auction site owned by eBay, I accidently stumbled onto not just one, but TWO Fi-Cords: a 1959 A1 and a 1961/1962 101. To my surprise, I was the only bidder and managed to pick the pair up for a mere 175 Euros. Both recorders are in absolutely mint condition. The 101, predecessor of the 101S, is an absolute stunner of exceptional quality. It has solid brass spools, something I'd never seen before, and lacks the usual 'forward & back winds', 'record' and 'listen' engraving, so I'm guessing it's a very early model. The A1 is also a very fine recorder, albeit slightly larger and less '007' than the 101. Looking forward to meeting fellow-collectors of these little marvels from yesteryear!
beautiful units, Thanks for sharing photos and welcome to S2G Please post some picture of your private collection
Welcome. If you are into miniature reel to reels I wonder if you have seen this site http://www.dustygizmos.com/spycord.htm
Wow, great find and they're in wonderful condition. I've posted some brochures in the section down below, these are really neat units. In case you don't know, you might also find more information on worldradiohistory.com but you have to go through a lot of magazine pages.
Hi Longman. Yes, I'm familiar with Dusty Gizmo's, but thanks for reminding me, hadn't been there for a while. Mouthwatering stuff, isn't it?
Thanks! I've had a fascination with small recorders since I was a kid, but only started collecting them when consumer digital recorders became available and people were dumping their little analog marvels on online auction site at absolutely next-to-nothing prices. I remember buying a pristine Sony TC-55B from eBay Germany for 5 Euro's, which was less than I paid for shipping. The same thing was happening with another childhood fascination of mine: analog SLR's and 8mm camera's, so I started buying them as well. Other people's junk were my treaures, and after about fifteen years, I had boxes and boxes full of goodies in the attic. It wasn't until recently, when we moved to a bigger house and I unpacked these boxes, that I realized just how big my treasure was. Here's three pics I took right after I took my recorders out of their boxes and put them on a table. Couldn't fit 'em all in one frame, so there's three pics with some overlap, but you get the picture:
I was in touch with Rick Maybury who runs the site after finding some more information about the PAM radio. It turns out that in the early 1980s he was on the staff of ETI/Hobby Electronics magazine so he got to review 1980s gadgets when they were the latest and greatest thing. https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Hobby-Electronics/Hobby-Electronics-1980-08-S-OCR.pdf
